House Rules
General Rules Shifting committed Essence To alleviate the burden of committed personal Essence in situations requiring modesty, beings with a personal and a peripheral Essence pool may forego Essence regeneration to 'shift' a like number of committed motes from one sort to another. The newly committed motes must be spent, but the formerly-committed motes are not regained. The regeneration may come from natural recovery, hearthstones, stunts or any other source. For example, an Exalt succeeding at a 2-die stunt may pay (and commit) 4 motes of peripheral Essence to uncommit 4 motes of personal Essence. This Essence is committed to the same effect as were the original motes. Status: Proposed. *Seconded --VictorW 04:15, December 28, 2009 (UTC) *I proposed this rule because Shawn is lazy and I'm basically his secretary; he thinks it's a good idea but apparently can't lift a keyboard. I think it's a good idea too (having invented it back in First Ed.) but just for the record I'm mildly opposed to the idea - the tradeoff between exercising divine power and maintaining subterfuge is a key part of the setting, and I find it an entertaining minigame. This proposed house rule treads close enough to the line that I can certainly accept it, but FYI I'd probably abstain from the vote if it looked like it was going to pass. --McLeith 23:30, December 29, 2009 (UTC) *I think it would make sense if it were only available when the mote regeneration you'd otherwise gain is coming from stunts. Because stunting is awesome and should be encouraged --VictorW 18:29, December 30, 2009 (UTC) XP Debt When spending XP, characters may enter into XP debt to cover up to half of this expenditure. Rules for XP debt can be found in Core pg 183. Training effects expand this to allow the entire expenditure to come from XP debt, along with generally coming with a reduction in training times. Additionally, major story related XP expenditures, such as the increase of Essence upon completing your Motivation, will generally be allowed to be paid entirely with XP debt, pending Storyteller approval. While technically there is no cap to how much XP debt you can enter into, excessive debt will decrease your chances of being allowed to use more for interesting ends. Don't make me charge interest, guys. Status: Approved --ShawnPoulsen 06:44, December 17, 2009 (UTC) Dice Bonuses From Circumstances Easily-Overlooked Presence Method (230) invokes these, but there is no provision for them anywhere else in the rules! As there are no dice bonuses from circumstance, obviously this charm automatically succeeds, all the time. While I initially thought handling them like stunts might work, a better analogy might be superior equipment (365-6). Thus, a guard's alertness might be exceptional, adding one die to all Awareness rolls. Or he might not be quite so dedicated, but still paying a fine amount of attention, but only really to the main gate, and gain one die within the 'speciality' Watching the Gate. The consummate guard, refusing all distraction, investigating all oddities and also pumped full of thaumaturgical potions to maintain alertness and stamina, might have perfect attentiveness, and gain +2 Awareness, spotting Easily Overlooked Exalts and asking himself "how did this person really expect to get past me?" So what I'm proposing is that circumstances be invoked as if they were equipment, even in the absence of E-OPM. This blurs the line a little between equipment and stunts, but I think that is a Good Thing as it causes us to pay more attention to the setting even when dealing with extras. Vic says: Seconded, though probably worth noting that this doesn't mesh perfectly with Easily-Overlooked Presence Method, unless you also assume that the disguise (or whatever) the Exalt is applying can qualify as Inferior equipment (which I'm sure I recall seeing but cannot find in the rules... oh well, easy enough to derive by applying the inverse of superior equipment). Even then, there's no real provision for the example given in Easily-Overlooked Presence Method where a Blood-soaked Solar in Orichalcum Plate at a ball gives everyone a +3 circumstance bonus. Though I guess you could assume that they have a terrible (-2) disguise, and everyone there has fine attention (+1 speciality in What is She Wearing?). Status: Approved --ShawnPoulsen 06:44, December 17, 2009 (UTC) *Shawn says: I'm not even sure this counts as a house rule, guys. Just a really badly written, hidden and subtle rule that technically is supposed to exist whether you know it or not. Anyway, rubber stamped for the look of it. Thaumaturgy *Degrees are reduced in cost to 5xp (or 4 if occult is favoured). This process grants no procedures. *Each Procedure bought within a Degree reduces the cost of the Degree by 1xp: once you have purchased 5 (or 4 if occult is favoured) Procedures within a given degree, the degree may be trained for free. *Once you have a degree, subsequent procedures with that degree cost no XP to learn, although still require the normal training time. *Specific knowledge of a procedure is required to perform said procedure despite knowledge of the appropriate degree. Status: Approved --ShawnPoulsen 06:44, December 17, 2009 (UTC) Clarifications and additions: * These rules only reduce xp costs; training times are unaltered. *Procedures targeting subtypes (eg. Lesser Ward Against Solar Exalted) count as a Procedure for the purposes of these rules. *Apprentice-level Procedures ("0-level") cost no xp to learn, do not contribute to any Degrees, and must be learned in order to be used. Status: Proposed. Essence spent in lieu of Resources is committed for the duration of a Procedure. Status: Proposed. Crafts as Regular Specialties I'm not entirely sure about how this one would work, but I saw someone mention it on the White Wolf Wiki and thought I'd put it up here with the rest of the XP-savers. Basically I gather the idea is that you pick up Craft as an individual skill, and then buy specialties in Craft in order to allow you access to a particular type of Craft. If we're going with Backgrounds = 3XP, then this seems like an essential houserule to avoid making Crafts completely gimped. *Leith: Craft is an adjunct to most character concepts; to be a powerful crafter you only need one Craft, and then Magitech or Genesis later on. There are potential issues here but they only seem worth addressing if we actually have someone who's wanting 3 or more Crafts. And I'd prefer an XP discount on 'repurchases' of Craft; being an awesome swordsmith shouldn't qualify you for weaving. Status: Ask me again when it's relevant --ShawnPoulsen 06:44, December 17, 2009 (UTC) Combos Reflexive and Supplemental charms may be added to an already existing combo for a surcharge of 1xp each time the combo is amended. Multiple charms may be added to the combo at this time. Charms may be removed from a combo at this time for no cost (homework assignment - figure out why you'd want to) Status: Approved --ShawnPoulsen 06:44, December 17, 2009 (UTC) Charms Dodge DV buffs As dodge DV is shit tier, Infinite Dodge Mastery is altered to include the following clause: "If the Solar has any other Infinite Masteries active, Infinite Dodge Mastery may be activated as a reflexive action, the Willpower cost is waived, and the mote cost is reduced by the number of motes already committed to other Infinite Masteries." For social combat, Infinite Integrity Mastery receives a similar treatment, but because Integrity has uses other than dodging, the rules are subtly different. Infinite Integrity Mastery receives the above benefits only from prior activations of the Infinite Masteries for Performance, Presence and Investigation. The upshot of this is that Dodge defenders still pay more for their DVs than parry defenders, in the form of extra Ability dots, but are compensated by better defensive charms (Dodge!) or much higher DVs (Integrity). --McLeith 23:56, December 29, 2009 (UTC) Status: Porpoised. Charms as Innate Powers In order to soften the combo xp requirements, and create more of a 'grey area' between combats that require no real focus and combats that require the activation of a combo every action, some of the Core rules on charm activation should be softened. By allowing more actions to be performed safely without combo activation, Exalts are free to use combos only when truly necessary. Status: Proposed. Most notably, there should be an Essence 4-5 charm, requiring Infinite Ability Mastery and Ability Essence Flow, which makes those two charms compatible. This allows Exalts to maintain gigantic DVs and attack pools without risking instant death from a perfect attack, as their charm activation has not been used. The result should be that defensive combos only need be used against offensive combos. Status: Proposed. Additionally, each Ability Essence Flow should lead to a further charm that allows (specific) other charms from that Ability to be activated as innate powers. These charms would be similar in structure to Essence Arrow Attack or Master Horseman's Techniques, making one charm innate on first purchase, and costing 2xp to include more. Examples of charms that should receive this treatment are the full defence charms (Shadow Over Water, Dipping Swallow Defense), sub-par charms that need some love (Essence-Gathering Temper, Spirit Strengthens the Skin (plus Durability of Oak Meditation), extremely situation-specific charms (especially supplemental charms, which might otherwise open a whole new realm of combo-tax) - (Enemy-Castigating Solar Judgement, Spirit-Cutting Attack) and signature-type charms that have that "Solars can SO do that" feel (Essence Arrow Attack, Transcendent Heroes Meditation, Triple-Distance Attack Technique, Integrity-Protecting Prana). The overall goal is to allow bread-and-butter Solar magic to be activated without requiring the use of your Do Not Die combo, which avoids the 10xp "combo tax", with buffs to a few charms/Abilities as a bonus. Being able to activate the full defence charms as innate powers does not mean you can use the charm upgrades in Glories of the Most High: Unconquered Sun (p. 23) to activate perfect defences as innate powers. Additionally, use of these new innate powers precludes the use of non-combo-ok charms on the same action - those charms are like that for a reason, and I don't intend to break them. Form-type charms are the most ubiquitous example: you're meant to need a bit of breathing room to activate them. Please use the talk page to discuss particular charms, and this page to talk about the principle of the thing. Status: Proposed. The final tier in this overhaul of the combo and charm system is perfect defences. There should be an effect somewhere in this cluster of charms I'm discussing that enables the activation of perfect defences as innate powers with a surcharge of 1WP. The idea here is that putting yourself in a position where you don't have a charm-activation perfect available to you is going to sharply increase your rate of WP expenditure and bring you that much closer to death. --McLeith 08:07, December 30, 2009 (UTC) Not sure if want, will discuss in person at some point --VictorW 04:16, December 28, 2009 (UTC) Phoenix Renewal Tactic At the heart of several broken infinite-willpower/success loops, this charm breaks Virtue channels by making them cheap. Virtue channels are meant to be restricted, valuable resources that only refresh when you achieve a really significant goal. I actually tend towards banning this charm outright, but see what you think of a possible fix: I propose that we cut everything from "Whenever the Solar would otherwise recover one or more Willpower" onwards, replacing its effects with "Whenever the Solar would otherwise recover one or more Willpower from a stunt that resonates with their Motivation, and the Virtue associated with Phoenix Renewal Tactic, they may forego the Willpower reward to regain one channel of the Virtue instead. A Solar may recover no more than one Virtue channel per day from any combination of charms including Phoenix Renewal Tactic, regardless of how many Virtues are covered by Phoenix Renewal Tactic." In other words, no Virtue channels on waking, and only from stunts that resonate with Motivation and appropriate Virtue. Note the wording on page 123 to the effect that Motivation-resonant stunts must directly further the character's goals and require effort and risk. For the purposes of this Charm that wording should be interpreted very restrictively. All other Virtue-channel-regaining effects should be removed. Status: Proposed. *Seconded, though note that ones which work exactly the same as this modified charm (ie Graceful Crane Form) should be left in. And I can't think of any other charms which grant Virtue Channels except for this one. Or, well... see comments on Epic Zeal. Also, I don't think breaking the Virtue Channel economy is the worst thing ever, it's just something you have to be careful about. Losing Virtue Channels reduces your ability to pull epic success out of your ass. Breaking the willpower economy, on the other hand, is unforgivable. Losing willpower reduces your ability to be an invincible immortal Twilight Essence reactor who incidentally cannot be beaten in social combat either. Charms that reduce willpower are fine, charms that let you regain tons of willpower are a design area that blatantly isn't supposed to exist. Which is why I hate Lion's Roar Recovery - it does something that only 2-die stunts are supposed to do. It does it by enhancing 2-die stunts, admittedly, but it does it in such a way that you no longer are required to stunt in order to survive if you build a cheesemonster. --VictorW 05:51, December 20, 2009 (UTC) *Er, I ranted there. Anyway, SECONDED. Virtue Channels aren't something you need to control obsessively like I think you do with Willpower regaining, but being able to convert willpower into virtue channels regardless of the surrounding circumstances is pretty cheesy, virtue channels aren't just flavourless little bites of power. I would propose '''banning this outright and modifying Graceful Crane Form so that instead of regaining Virtue Channels freely it lets you spend a Compassion Channel to enhance a Martial Arts action and if you succeed you get the channel back. Effectively meaning that you get to "risk" a compassion channel to enhance an action, rather than infinite compassion channels like the current setup. --VictorW 05:51, December 20, 2009 (UTC) Fury-Inciting Presence Is a trap . The righteous fury instilled by this charm also provides the target unit with +1 Might, to a maximum of Might 3 '''Status: Proposed. Half Price Excellencies. Excellencies are half price. During character creation, if you really want an odd number of Excellencies, round the bonus point cost up. Status: Approved --ShawnPoulsen 06:44, December 17, 2009 (UTC) Backgrounds Allowed Backgrounds *All Backgrounds in the Core Rules. *Command (MoEP:DB 106) *Henchmen (MoEP:DB 110) *Reputation (MoEP:DB 110) *Retainers (MoEP:DB 111) *Face (Scroll of the Monk 152) *Others by specific Storyteller permission. You better have an amazing story for why you're allowed Abyssal Command, or else you will get the scowly face of doom. Status: Approved --ShawnPoulsen 06:14, December 17, 2009 (UTC) Backgrounds with XP To allow players to introduce and alter setting elements, Backgrounds may be purchased for the cost of 3xp per dot.This might bypass the normal training times and roleplaying methods for gaining Backgrounds, though attempting to do so invites the wrath of the Storyteller. Far better to stunt well, fit into the story and gain bonus points to offset the cost. Players may go into experience debt to pay for no more than half the XP required, and may receive refunds for losing or surrendering the Backgrounds, or having them superseded by Storyteller-awarded Backgrounds. Accordingly, players should keep a record of which Backgrounds they have purchased themselves, including those purchased at character creation. As in all things, the Storyteller's adjudication is necessary, and should be exercised to keep Backgrounds realistic, related to the story, and proportional to the effort invested by players. This is in addition to the Storyteller's normal ability to simply award Backgrounds, free of charge, as part of the development of the story. Such awarded Backgrounds will obviously not yield XP if and when they are similarly revoked. Status: Approved --ShawnPoulsen 05:44, December 17, 2009 (UTC) Merits and Flaws (Scroll of the Hero) Merits allowed, purchasable with bonus points or XP as appropriate. Flaws allowed with Storyteller approval, pending a good and in-character explanation as to why it is appropriate. Purchasing Flaws outside of character creation to gain extra XP requires double Storyteller approval - Ask at your own peril. Status: Approved --ShawnPoulsen 06:00, December 17, 2009 (UTC) Exalted! Resources Resources can be increased via the 'Backgrounds with XP' houserules as detailed above. Like many other backgrounds, a successful extended dramatic action will generally be sufficient justification for this increase. To handle the purchasing power of entities of a national scale, the Resources background will be expanded to a 10 dot scale. As individuals will almost never (read as "never") have a resource rating of greater than 5 personally, the functioning of this rule should be entirely transparent as it applies to your characters. Status: Approved --ShawnPoulsen 06:00, December 17, 2009 (UTC) It will be necessary for several of our characters to budget for large amounts of Resources, whether for an army, government department, or simply an artifact-crazed marketeer. Ignoring the grossly discontinuous Resources:cash rate on page 363, each dot of Resources will be 10x bigger than the last. Your dots of Resources is how many zeroes you got after your name. Resources 'refresh' every so often. As an initial experiment, let's say the slate is cleaned every season. If that proves too restrictive or permissive, we can change it to a month or a year. That is, you can make up to 10 Resources 2 purchases in a season without impacting your 3 dots of Resources. Or 100 R:1 purchases, or 1000 R:0, or any combination thereof. This does not affect the default rule regarding spending above your means: reducing your Resources because of a large purchase means you have eaten into your capital, and that has to be rebuilt before it can refresh. However, in an attempt to make bartering functional (not to mention charms like Frugal Merchant Method and Insightful Buyer Technique), making a purchase at the above rate requires a successful haggle. Failing at the haggle doubles the Resources 'price', if not the cash price. Botching, or getting beaten very badly, increases the price at the ST's discretion. Doing remarkably well (such as by using Irresistible Salesman Spirit) can halve the cost, or better. Putting this all together, an accomplished trader might make their dinar stretch twice as far as a less careful spender, and four times as far as a chump. Organisations, such as Followers or Command, have an upkeep cost. The Followers text on page 112 suggests that if you have Resources equal to your Followers, you can pay for their upkeep without impacting your Resource base. This suggests that upkeep for N'' dots of Followers is somewhere between ''N-1 and 5(N''-1). The ST can use this estimate as a baseline for such Backgrounds if and when we start handling large budgets. Paying extra, whether for better equipment, training, or hiring standards, should be a means to increase the proficiency or reach of an organisation. '''Status': Proposed. Combat Damage Lethal attacks that do not exceed the target's lethal soak inflict dice of bashing damage equal to the attack's minimum damage. Lethal attacks which exceed the target's soak but by less than minimum damage do lethal damage as normal. Status: Approved for field testing --ShawnPoulsen 07:29, December 17, 2009 (UTC) In light of the above, effects that heal or regenerate bashing damage become commensurately more powerful. They will be ruled by the ST on a case-by-case basis, but in general all such effects should be nerfed down to being no more than twice as effective on bashing damage as on lethal. Status: Proposed. Stunned Being stunned lasts until after your next action. This way being stunned actually does something. Status: Hire some competent editors, WW, jeez. --ShawnPoulsen 07:32, December 17, 2009 (UTC) Punching and Kicking Let's change the statlines for these two from "punch" and "kick" to "normal blow" and "strong blow", either of which can be performed with the hands or feet. Wuxia is too full of lightning-fast kick flurries for me to accept a literal treatment of the rules here. This house rule has no mechanical effects at all, and can in fact be freely stunted for without a 'house-rule' at all. Status: Irrefutable. --ShawnPoulsen 07:20, December 17, 2009 (UTC) Weapons Staves Staves may be wielded as martial arts weapons. Status: Approved --ShawnPoulsen 07:29, December 17, 2009 (UTC) Piercing Artifact Weapons The Piercing tag is removed from all the 2-handed Artifact weapons in the core book, and probably most others besides. The spirit of the rule is to buff soak and lessen the threat of instant death. Status: Proposed. *Seconded, though I would say you could just change the Piercing tag so that it only affects armor not made of the Magical Materials. That would work pretty well, I think? --VictorW 04:41, December 28, 2009 (UTC) *Yeah, I think that would solve the Exalted combat problem, but the principle of the thing remains: by having piercing, the most damaging weapons in the game are buffed up even more damagingness; I accidentally the whole health levels. There's no particular justification for them being piercing, except arguably the sledges. Overwhelming captures their character as... overwhelmingly pew pew; piercing is gratuitous --McLeith 23:18, December 29, 2009 (UTC) Errata See also White Wolf's official errata. Flaw of Invulnerability: Conviction The optional modification to the Conviction flaw of Invulnerability from Glories of the Most High (32) shall be used. Status: Approved. --ShawnPoulsen 07:41, December 17, 2009 (UTC) Essence Resurgent: increasing a static pool The rules for increasing a static pool or value using Essence Resurgent (Core: 185) are inconsistent. They say a pool gets increased by the Ability in question, and that this increases a static value by half the Ability. These two statements are not identical; the latter is an oversimplification of the former. Essence Resurgent increases static value pools by the Ability score; static values like DV are then recalculated using the new pool. Status: Proposed. Typos Yep, lots of typos. Collect em all. so does this line Difficulty vs. External Penalty There's some confusion about these two in the player base and throughout the rulebook. This section of the house rules aims to catalogue the areas where some mistake may have been made, and rule on how we are going to play it. The section on coordinating attacks (144) gives a good example of how difficulty affects an action. Difficulty does not subtract successes; external penalties do. So does this line Category:Rules